Posts Tagged ‘weaving’
Roger and the willow design team have been busy during the summer heatwave, adding some new woven willow products to our catalogue of items for sale.
The design and craft team have completed work on a new garden light.
This is a woven basket, mounted on a pole, which has a glass container and t-light included in the securely woven basket.
The items can be manufactured to any length – making ideal ground lights for a garden corner – or as a secure and effective ‘standard’ for parades or ceremonies as dusk falls.
We are working to update our downloadable catalogue, but you can see the garden light page here.
Use our contact us page if you would like more information and prices immediately.
Craft skills shining on willow at WinterWillow – part of WinterComfort.
WinterWillow coffins - eco-friendly
Following the success of the Places of Change garden at Chelsea this year, and the great interest in woven willow eco-coffins by large numbers of visitors – we are very pleased to tell you that the Eden Project are continuing the story by featuring our eco-coffins as part of the legacy exhibition from the garden display at the Flower Show.
During June, July and August 2010 you will be able to see a WinterWillow woven coffin at The Eden Project in Cornwall.
The work of our weaving team will be part of a featured display to celebrate the energy and work of all the organisations and individuals who helped to make Places of Change such a success.
We were delighted to take a small part in this creative process and would like to offer WinterWillow congratulations to everyone who worked so hard to make the garden happen.
Weaving your way to the West Country?
If you are in Cornwall this summer and would like to visit the Eden Project you can find more information here.
Roger Fowle, our weaving tutor at WinterWillow, has written a short account of his journey in willow.
Describing how he got started, what captured his imagination and those who gave him help along the way.
Roger is working both to support the weaving team at WinterWillow and to help encourage the take-up of weaving skills by the users of our Centre at WinterComfort for the Homeless.
Roger says that ‘…willow weaving is a great way to acquire useful new skills, to get back into work or to create objects which can be sold to support the work of our charity’.
The weaving team at WinterWillow are always happy to show visitors their work and to encourage others to take up the craft.
From small baskets, woven eco-coffins can grow.
Susanna works with our team of volunteers, staff and centre users to create woven willow products for our social enterprise, WinterWillow.
Directly involved in developing willow products for our basketry and garden range, Susanna brings both enthusiasm and an artistic sensibility to her engagement with the team.
Her experience as a maker and tutor is an invaluable part of the WinterWillow process.
The short film below shows Susanna finishing a Wishing Star from our range – ideally illustrating how much care the WinterWillow team put into even the smallest woven product.
If you would like a pack of Wishing Stars you can download our basketry and garden brochure from our basketry page on the WinterWillow web site…order form included if that helps?
You can visit the home page of our charity WinterComfort for the Homeless here.
See what the energy of taking The Willow Way can support.
As mentioned in a previous Willow Way entry we are building new web pages for our WinterWillow web site that will let you buy our retail baskets and garden products with one click.
We are not quite there yet – but have uploaded a short price list and order form for our baskets and garden products. It features short biographical information on WinterWillow, a price list and an order form that you can copy, print or post back to us with your requirements.
You can also use our contact us page to ask for information.
You can download our list on the following pages…
Our general baskets page
Our obelisk page
If you do buy a WinterWillow woven basket – thank you.
To access our stored documents you can download a free copy of Adobe Reader here.
As we talk to our customers about WinterWillow products and services we always stress how different a social enterprise is from a ‘normal’ business. The social outcomes of our energies are paramount.
What we produce for has equal status with what we produce… might be a good mantra for a charity based social business.
Like any charity our volunteers help us provide services and delivery as an organisation. As a mature charity our systems for volunteer support are well established. The WinterWillow team are always happy to convert our customers into volunteers too. Not as painful process as it sounds…just a great way to contribute to the production of woven willow objects for community benefit.
Can you spare some time? A great way to start is to discover the volunteer page on our main charity website.
You can find volunteering information here.
You will find the WinterComfort for the Homeless volunteer application form and the volunteer handbook we have produced. Alternatively you can ring us on 01223 518140 and ask for our Volunteer Co-ordinator.
Could you be a vital volunteer?
We really liked this five minute film from the Scottish Borders. A group of willow sculptors are cropping, weaving and distributing their made objects through the woodland at Wooplaw.
The film really captures both the beauty of willow as a material, but also the great pleasure in working with the material out of doors too.
The pleasure of successfully making your own basket, ‘bird box’ or simple decoration goes without saying.
If you would like to take part in a WinterWillow workshop, use our contact us page on our main website and we’ll add you to our contact list for our next event.
WinterWillow is a member of Hertfordshire Basketry.
The group will have a stall and members on hand for the next Festival of Living Crafts at Hatfield House.
This four day event takes place at Hatfield House between 6th and 9th May 2010.
There will be the widest variety of crafts – from woven items, to jewellery, fashion and ceramics.
A great event to see how weaving as a historic and traditional craft sits comfortably alongside other skills, both ancient and contemporary.
See you there?
You can find the Hertfordshire Basketry Group web site here.
We were recently finishing off production of an order for willow panels for a customer.
So nice was the weather that, in the true WinterWillow spirit, we relocated production outside to the green space adjacent to our workshop.
You can see from these images that our weaving team take the greatest care and concentration, with even the most straight forward weaving task.
These ‘external’ work sessions are also fantastic marketing opportunities. People passing by in the park often stop and ask ‘…what are you doing?’ or ‘…where does all this come from?’.
And we tell them of course!
In the next few weeks we are planning to update and refresh our existing web presence. We are planning to offer our site visitors the chance to purchase woven objects, created by our team, directly fom the web page.
You will be able to support the work of WinterComfort with one click.
You’ll also be able to see the range, colour and size of the woven baskets we make – whether a willow coffin, a bicycle basket or something to hold the shopping.
Keep checking in with us, or subscribe to our blog news using the rss button to the right.
(Our web partner Thirdsectorweb has a web page to explain what rss is and how it works ).
Visit the WinterWillow home page here.
Welcome to our new weblog. We are on a social enterprise journey and very happy to have you along with us.
If you would like to comment on our social enterprise, our weaving team output or just encourage us occasionally, that would be great.
We will feature information, reviews and useful links on weaving, green burial sites, the natural death movement and all the interesting things we find in our work.
Our weblog will be designed to let you know what we are doing, to give you information about the world of social enterprise and community business in general, as we develop skills, services and support for our weaving team, our customers and you.
